The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  "Are you sure that east is clear?" Plinto came up to me. Like us, he wasn't included in the ten-strong fighting groups.

  "It's not clear, but there we have a chance to break through." I had no idea why I answered the way I did.

  "Break through? From where?" Plinto's surprise was a clear indication that I just said something stupid. And really, why would we need to break out of here? We could just make a portal and we'd be golden. Or we could get on our flying mounts and fly to any point of the Dark Forest. Not a bad idea, that, by the way!

  "Ready to roll, one minute countdown." At this point I discovered that there was inter-raid chat on top of the inter-clan chat too. This I had no idea about, since during the raids in which I took part as a Hunter we communicated by normal speech.

  "Center, move forward," Hellfire announced, using his normal voice, and the Phoenix raid group stepped out into the Dark Forest mists.

  "The wings are off!" The tanks of the Heirs of the Titans and Azure Dragons announced their departure.

  "The support is ready!" Ehkiller and twenty more players came up to the edge of the glade, scrolls at the ready.

  "I think I'll go and have a look at what's happening on the east side," said Plinto, who stealthed and hurried in the opposite direction to the main group of players.

  The battle for cleansing the Dark Forest from the taint had begun. ...

  "The center is clear!"

  A whole minute had gone by from the moment the raiders moved out into the Dark Forest, but the mobs were in no hurry to bestow extra Experience on the players. No-one was attacking or running around or even moving. It was as if this wasn't the same forest from which just ten minutes ago the scouting Rogues had to be rescued.

  "Center, keep moving!" Hellfire gave the command to Phoenix to follow in his steps, as he had departed from the glade by more than a hundred meters. "Wings, spread out! There are no mobs here!"

  A couple more minutes of tense waiting yielded nothing: the forest was dead. All thirty players had walked a hundred meters away from the center, trying to provoke the mobs into attacking.

  "Something tells me," said Ehkiller, rolling up a scroll and putting it back into his bag, "that Mahan was wrong and we have nothing to be afraid of. Anastaria!" He shouted into the forest, any ideas what's going on?"

  "No!" came the girl's shout. "Try to come out in twos or threes! Keep those scrolls at the ready! Maybe they'll attack smaller groups! Rick! Drop the herb-gathering and come out as well. We have to maximize the search area.

  The three ten-strong raid groups went out even further, the wings began to circle, searching for the Vampires, and the remaining players, splitting into groups of two or three, started to leave the Guardian's glade.

  "Mahan." Antsinthepantsa came up to me. Aside from myself, she was now the only one who hadn't stepped out of the glade. Even the guys from my clan had gone out in search of the mobs, supposing that low-level players, as easy prey, would lure them out. "I ... we mustn't go there."

  "I know, but I failed to convince the others."

  "It will happen right now." The girl suddenly went pale. I began to get that sinking feeling too and it became clear that in the next few seconds there would be a big 'Boom’!

  "Stacey, BUBBLE!" I screamed at the top of my voice into the twilight of the surrounding wood. "Everyone back!"

  "Back to the glade! MOVE IT!" Almost simultaneously, an internal raid announcement came from Plinto, whose frame had rapidly begun to melt away. Someone was giving him a kicking, and a pretty hard one at that. "Ash, 4 seconds! Glade +400!"

  For me Plinto's message was total gibberish, but I saw the reaction of Ehkiller who was standing about twenty meters away from the Guardian's zone. At first he'd looked surprised when I shouted about the bubble, but his eyebrows flew up when he read Plinto's message, then he bolted for the glade like mad, then, finally, disappeared. In fact, everything disappeared: trees, branches, twilight ... players. Aside from mist and about fifty see-through figures that were once high-level players, the enormous circle with a 400-meter radius contained nothing at all. There ended up being two neat-looking glades: one was a perfect circle, the glade, and the second was a slightly cut back circle, which touched the Guardian's zone, but was unable to subdue it. The scene was completed with two stunned Shamans whose gut instincts prevented them from stepping out into the mist. Although – wait! Anastaria! Surrounded by a bubble, though now strangely darkened, the girl was frozen about twenty meters away from us.

  "YOU ARE TOO WEAK TO WITHSTAND ME." Another resonating voice spread throughout the glade and I realized that every voice we'd heard before was just a weak parody of something truly terrifying. Our entire bodies began to shake: you got the feeling that your teeth were about to jump out and head off into the forest just to stop experiencing the full 'charm' of this voice. ... "I AM DISSAPOINTED. IS MALABAR TRULY THAT WEAK? MY FIGHTERS WILL DEAL WITH YOU NOW."

  Perhaps there were other words, but at that moment the surrounding world began to swim and I slipped out of consciousness. ...

  "Wake up already!" Through the comforting, and very quiet, haze I could hear the demanding voice of Antsinthepantsa, so I tried to concentrate and open my eyes. I only managed on the third attempt, but the darkness didn't go anywhere. Pictograms of buffs and debuffs appeared in front of me instead of the Guardian's glade. A message flashed past me that my Endurance increased to 138 and quickly vanished, reluctant to lift my spirits with any extra light. One of the debuffs, Blindness, wouldn't be gone for another ten minutes, so the system diligently ensured that I remained incapacitated until then.

  "I dispelled what I could from you, but most of it is beyond me. You'll have to manage on your own. Try to summon the Spirit of Restoration," the girl's hoarse voice came from afar – by the looks of it the Stun debuff was also enjoying the opportunity of spending some quality with this player.

  "How long has it been?" I croaked, surprised at my own voice. My senses were telling me that I'd spent two days walking under a burning sun, got completely desiccated and then finished off my vocal chords by singing a few songs: my throat felt as rough as sandpaper. That must have been the Dumbness debuff. All these debuffs were really a bit much: they'd camped out in a neat row of twenty-three nice icons before my eyes, varying in duration from 10 minutes to 2 days. And that was after Antsinthepantsa managed to take some off me.

  "About ten minutes. I'll tell you again; summon the Restoration Spirit. You may even try one of a different rank to you, as long as you summon it."

  "But I didn't learn ..."

  "So what? Do you really think a Shaman needs to be taught in order to communicate with Spirits? Are you not the master of a Dragon?! Now!"

  The girl's outburst was so sudden that I even managed to sit up. Why is she so sure that a Shaman can communicate with any Spirits even without proper training? This goes against Game logic, where you have to learn first and only then use a skill you've learned. I was about to let the lady Shaman know what I thought of her words, but then recalled a certain episode from my life in Beatwick – my teacher's order: "RUN, YOU FOOL!" At the time I did manage to summon a communication Spirit without even suspecting that it existed. So perhaps the same could be done for Restoration. At least in theory.

  "Are you going to sit around all day?" Antsinthepantsa hurried me along: "My scrolls will soon run out, my Mana's at zero and Anastaria is still outside the glade. Hurry up!"

  Anastaria is alive? Ah, I'm being slow now – she was shielded under a bubble. But then why isn't she back in the glade? I just don't get it. I quickly have to get back to normal, but how do I do that when my head is throbbing like a locomotive and the driver keeps pulling the whistle? Practically every second. What did the Guardian say? 'No-one can cause you harm in this glade'? When I'm back on my feet, I'll go over to that block of wood and politely ask it why the heck I ended up with a ton of debuffs. I'd like to see it get out of that one, the unfeeling log. ...

  "Mahan!" Antsin
thepantsa's voice once again broke through my staggered thinking "Do something already!"

  'Do something?' What is she on about? I was heading to the Guardian ... Anastaria! She's dying and I'm sitting here dawdling, getting all ready to chop down the Guardian. ... With some effort of will I forced myself to concentrate, enter the Spirit Summoning Mode, free up an active slot and start a summons. I needed the Spirit of Full Restoration, the one that would restore not only myself, but other players too. So, where can you be hiding?

  "What's taking so long?" A few minutes of summoning finally allowed me to find the right Spirit, which led to the immediate removal of all my debuffs. Looks like a pretty useful thing, this Full Restoration. It doesn't affect Hit Points, since healing deals with that, but it does return a player to his initial state: it removes curses, debuffs and poison. This Spirit can be summoned if you're Stunned, but – if I understood the description correctly – under such conditions, the next summons would only be possible in 24 hours. This means ... that Antsinthepantsa had first restored herself, dispelled those debuffs from me which could be dispelled with normal cleansing, shook me awake and forced me to learn Restoration. I'll have to have a thorough chat with this girl. How come she was so sure that Shamans are able to work with Spirits this way, without any teachers? All this is rather unorthodox. And in general, chatting with her would be very helpful in order to find out more about my class.

  "Yeah ... I got a little held up. What's up with Anastaria?" The girl's frame indicated that her Hit Points were on a steady journey towards zero. Antsinthepantsa took turns in using her healing scrolls and Spirit summoning, trying not to waste Mana, but she was unable to remove all the debuffs from Anastaria. And Stacey had ... I selected the girl and whistled: there were 32 debuffs on the 'Cursed' Anastaria. Wow! They managed to land a curse on her too! It wouldn't be for long, of course, just until the first respawn, but the very fact that you could curse such a high-level player ... if my memory didn't fail me, it could only be done by someone with double her number of levels. Anastaria was currently at level 331, therefore, she was cursed by someone who was at least level 662. If you took into account that even Emperors were only level 500, I was liking what was happening less and less.

  "Take all the debuffs off her." Once again Antsinthepantsa brought me back to reality. Perhaps I have a concussion and that's why I keep freezing. That's the last thing I need. "My Mana and scrolls are running out, get a move on already!"

  "Stacey!" I couldn't help shouting as I took all the debuffs off Anastaria and, instead of running for the glade, she fell to the ground like a broken doll. It was only now that I noticed that summoning the Restoration Spirit takes 40% Hit Points off me. That was almost a half of what I had and without so much as a warning. I immediately summoned a Healing on myself, solemnly promising to finally put together an altar and make a sacrifice to the Spirits and, without thinking of the danger, ran to the place where Anastaria had just been standing. The phantom players were no longer around – by the looks of it, they had not been permitted to depart until the local Lord (or whatever we were supposed to call him) had said everything he had to say. But as soon as he did, they were free.

  "Some place you found to have a nap." I jumped to Anastaria and tried to lift her, but she sagged in my arms like a dead weight.

  "So I have ..." The girl tried to smile, but instead her face put on a strange expression of bared teeth. "Don't keep me here, let me respawn ..."

  "Yeah, right! Like I'd lose the pleasure of being in your company for six hours with practically no-one else around ... I'd be the laughing stock of Barliona's entire male population!"

  "Mahan, what happened? Why hasn't she come to herself yet? I have only enough Mana for two more summonings and I'm out of scrolls!" came a shout from Antsinthepantsa.

  "Mahan, I give you my word that we'll definitely meet later one-on-one. But now, please let me go." Anastaria tried to get up by leaning on the ground, but the arm of her gaming avatar broke with a quiet crack, as if it was made of glass. Uh-oh! The avatar could only break in one case – if a quest or a scenario demands it. I sat right down in the mist and carefully put Anastaria's head in my lap. Lifting and dragging her to the glade wouldn't work – she'd break completely, but leaving her here on her own ... I just couldn't do it. You can't just leave a girl in distress like that. ... So all I could do was sit and wrinkle my brow at the unpleasant feeling I got from this new version of Anastaria. For some reason her skin had darkened, had become slimy to the touch and constantly bubbled. I shuddered to think what would happen if I ended up with skin like that. It was a good thing that she was just an ordinary player. This looked painful.

  "Stacey, what happened? Do you think we won't make it? So help us, we'll get you back on your feet in no time! So what if you've turned to crystal. I'm sure you've been through worse in your time."

  "Turned to crystal! It HURTS!" the girl screamed so loud the entire forest seemed to hear. "My senses have been turned on by 30%! Can't you see what's happening to me? Let me die! I can't even leave the Game right now. If I do, I'll return to the same cursed body! I must go through respawn!"

  Antsinthepantsa froze in the middle of summoning another Healing Spirit. I was so shocked by this news that I didn't even notice that the Hit Points of the lady Paladin had run out and her gaming avatar flickered, then disappeared. I hoped that at least now she could leave the capsule and scream all the pain out of herself. Or get drunk to forget the feelings of the curse. To go through what she just went through, without so much as a groan ... I wouldn't have been able to do that. Whether I could trust Anastaria or not no longer mattered. By her actions Anastaria deserved to be ... respected. Yes, that's the word. I really started to respect her as a person and not just some girl with a cute face. Now I just needed to be careful not to let this respect grow into something more. Our weight classes were just too far apart, after all. ...

  "Mahan, let's go." Antsinthepantsa once again brought me back to myself. I'll have to remember to do something nice for her after all this. "Anastaria will respawn as good as new. We have to get back to the glade."

  "Antsinthepantsa, can I ask you something?" I said as soon as we were back under the protection of the Guardian.

  "Just call me Natalie. My gaming name is a bit of a mouthful, so those who know me use the other name. So – shoot."

  "Can you tell me how you found out that the Shaman's initiation could be completed in a non-standard way? I'm asking because before I thought that the inexplicable feelings that arise within me on various occasions were something only I experience ... but it turns out that you felt something too. I wish I could get to the bottom of all this, otherwise I'm feeling a bit lost ..."

  "Hold on ... you, the owner of a unique Totem, who has an acute perception of the surrounding world, have no idea what it means to be a Shaman?"

  "Before your rather emotional exclamation just now I thought I knew what it meant to be a Shaman. Now I'm not so sure. Will you tell me about it?"

  "Do you know Kalatea?" The girl was on a roll. "No? You should! And you're not a member of the Order of the Dragon, are you?" She continued to bombard me with questions.

  "Not a member of what? Listen, I think I told you that I only became a Shaman half a year ago, having spent half of that time in a mine where I didn't really use any of my Shaman skills. I have no idea who or what you're talking about now. I asked you because you really helped me out when I was going through the initiation. Now this incomprehensible matter with this stupid intuition or premonition remains. I thought you might know what this is. And now you're trying to scare me with some Galanterea and Orders of the Dragons."

  "Kalatea."

  "What's the difference? Who the heck is she, anyway? Or 'he', even?"

  "It's a 'she'. A lady Shaman. Level 360. She's not in Malabar, but in Astrum, the Empire that lies on one of the neighboring continents. The Order of the Dragon is an association of Shamans headed by her."

  "An associa
tion of Shamans? I thought this wasn't a particularly popular class ..."

  "That's right. On our continent, that is. But in Astrum players choose it quite often. It is part of their cultural heritage, after all, and it's held in high esteem there."

  "I think I've lost you there. Can you start again, but in more detail?"

  "I can start again," smiled Antsinthepantsa. "No-one would believe this if I told them: a three-month-old Shaman, who managed to get a Dragon and can make active use of his abilities, has no idea about the Order of the Dragon. So. The Shaman class appeared in Barliona just over ten years ago, precisely because players from both the Americas started to petition the Corporation to introduce it. For the first two years Shamans could only be created in Astrum; Kalatea was the first player who managed to complete the initiation in the Path of the Shaman. Essentially this class was especially created with her in mind. Kalatea was actively involved in the design of the abilities and development of the class quests. She was offered a job in the Corporation but refused, preferring to remain an ordinary player. But even now the developers often ask her for advice on various aspects of Shaman gameplay. By the way, she's the only player Harbinger in Barliona."